Origin Systems

Origin Systems, Inc.

Founded	1983
Closed	February, 2004
Headquarters	Manchester, NH, United States
Website	web.archive.org/web/19970330131424/www.origin.ea.com/english/index.html
Other Names	OSI

Origin Systems, Inc., often abbreviated to OSI, was a video game company founded in Austin, Texas by Robert Garriott, Richard Garriott, Owen Garriott, and and Chuck Bueche in 1983. The company produced numerous popular game series such as Ultima, Wing Commander, and System Shock. The company motto was "We create worlds," which was fitting since their game worlds were of the most detailed at the time. In addition to large amounts of dialog, sandbox game elements, and AI-driven NPCs, many of the game boxes included cloth maps, themed manuals, and trinket objects from the game.

In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired OSI. With EA came many changes. The headquarters was relocated to Manchester, NH, and by 1999. After the huge success of Ultima Online (W32), EA decided to make OSI focus on online gaming only, and Ultima IX: Ascension (W32) was the last non-online game made by the company.

As tension grew between the Origin staff and Electronic Arts, co-founder Richard Garriott and a few other employees left the company in 2000 in order to found Destination Games. OSI continued to support Ultima Online, but spent little time on other franchises. In 2004, EA cancelled all of OSIs remaining games and dissolved the company, though EA still uses the name "Origin" for its online gaming presence.

Games

Music Development

OSI pioneered several aspects of video game music. In particular, they were one of the few Apple II game developers that utilized the Mockingboard and one of the few DOS game developers to utilize the SSI 2001. They also took full advantage of the Roland MT-32, creating orchestral scores with customized instruments.

Audio Formats

Most OSI games from the 1980s were primarily released for the Apple II and Commodore 64. Commodore music is ripped to SID format, while Apple II music has yet to have a standard rip format. DOS ports were made, but since soundcards were not yet available, only PC Speaker sound effects were ported over. In 1988, OSI created the M format for their DOS games, which they continued to use until 1990. After that, they began using more popular formats like MIDI and XMI.

OMI
M
TM

Audio Personnel

These people worked at OSI on the audio staff:

These people did freelance audio for OSI:

Picture Gallery

The logo was completely revamped in 1996. This was the last logo used by OSI before they were closed.
Though sticking with the same font and shape, The logo became more textured in 1992.
The logo switched from white to blue in 1990, though some of the Strike Commander games colored it gold.
In 1988, Origin switched to this new bolder logo and dropped "Systems, Inc."
Beginning with its first game in 1983, Ultima III: Exodus (C64), Origin used this logo until 1988.